Checkmate, Chuck. 👑

Edit: Given the number of downvotes I’m getting, I’m guessing a lot of people have just learned that they’ve been pronouncing St. John wrong. Don’t beat yourselves up. It’s not like it’s a terribly common name.

  • Berttheduck@lemmy.ml
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    1 month ago

    We don’t as far as I know. St John is usually pronounced Saint John. Though English is weird and you might have come across a local pronunciation. Do you know where abouts in the UK that one comes from?

      • XIIIesq@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        I live near a village called St John’s Town of Dalry and no one says sinjin nor have I heard anyone’s name referred to that way.

      • SanguinePar@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        Am in UK, and yeah, I’ve definitely heard it pronounced that way, sometimes combined with a second name, eg St John-Smith = Sinjin-Smith

        I think it’s a thing posh people use sometimes.

  • breadsmasher@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    I am english, in the UK. I have never heard someone say sinjin instead of saint john. The only thing I can imagine is a local accent? But id think its more like sint jin (sint jawn?)

    • Liam Mayfair@lemmy.sdf.org
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      1 month ago

      That’s not how I’ve heard it pronounced. Not in the north at least. The T is mute. It’s “sinjin” (rhymes with Ken).

  • Liam Mayfair@lemmy.sdf.org
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    1 month ago

    Yup, Sinjin is definitely a thing.

    Source: I know a St. John and he told me the right way to pronounce his name is “Sinjin”

    • stormio@lemmy.ca
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      1 month ago

      In Vancouver, Canada, we have a journalist named St. John Alexander who pronounces his first name as “Sinjin.” I heard him say it on TV and it sounded weird. His profile even mentions it.

      He’s often asked about his name. St. John is originally British and is pronounced “Sinjin.” His parents discovered it in Charlotte Bronte’s novel Jane Eyre.

    • sgibson5150@slrpnk.netOP
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      1 month ago

      From Wikipedia St John Pettifor Catchpool (1890–1971), English Quaker relief worker St. John Ellis (1964–2005), British Rugby League player St John Ervine (1883-1971), Irish writer St John Groser (1890-1966), Anglican priest and Christian socialist St John Hornby (1867–1946), British businessman St John Horsfall (1910-1949), British motor racing driver St John Brodrick, 1st Earl of Midleton (1856–1942), British politician St John O’Neill (1741–1790), Irish MP for Randalstown Saint-John Perse, pseudonym of Alexis Leger (1887–1975), French poet and diplomat St John Philby (1885–1960), British civil servant and explorer in Arabia

  • hexagonwin@lemmy.sdf.org
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    1 month ago

    can anyone please explain why this is getting downvoted to hell? this is the first time i hear “sinjin” but it seems to be a thing, from a quick search.

    • sgibson5150@slrpnk.netOP
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      1 month ago

      It’s my “most people rejected His message” meme moment. 😆

      I guess it’s just like the neverending GIF argument. There’s a right and wrong answer but people are people.

      • SanguinePar@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        No, but you said “why do the English pronounce” with no qualification that it’s neither the only way nor the most common way.

        You’re right that it does happen, but your title implies it’s the sole or dominant pronunciation.

      • SouthFresh@lemmy.ml
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        1 month ago

        My point was that it seemed to me as if you were assuming from limited information that the pronunciation was prevalent when the source material provided doesn’t state the prevelence.

  • BCsven@lemmy.ca
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    1 month ago

    I grew up in Britain no one I knew says sinjin, but Sinclair,warrik (Warwick) etc were the norm

  • morgan423@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    Imagine acting like everyone in England has the same accent. The only thing more ridiculous would be saying that everyone in the US does.

  • revanthetrueemperor@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    My best guess would be that saintclair’s prononciation was influenced by french, as in french the “t” is pronounced while st john might be more “english”, leading to the “t” being silent

  • sylver_dragon@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    It may be a case of laziness which has started creating a local dialect. This is one of the ways living languages change over time, people start sluring words and sounds together until there is almost nothing left of the original words and there is a new word in their place.